Northern Soul Classics - I'll Never Fall In Love Again - Bobby Freeman

Another classic from the early Torch. I bought this from the late great Phil Morgan. It cost me £5, which at the time was the equivalent of half a week's wages. In the late 60's, we used to go to the Torch on School nights, when you could get in for six old pence. Often it was free to get in, but if there was a charge it was usually offset by having free beer for an hour, which none of us should have been drinking, of course, because we were only 14 or 15.

At the time there were two legendary dancers at the Torch - Phil Morgan and Eddie Whiston. They both had distinct dancing styles. I only really knew Phil. he lived at the bottom of Tunstall, just below Brownhills High School, with his Mum and Dad. He was a few years older than us. We used to see him coming through the village often on his Lambretta SX 250, with all the trimmings. He'd always wave, and if he had time, stop and talk.

He worked at the Michelin factory in Stoke, and told us about all the gymnastics training he did that he used for his dancing. Phil used to do lots of backdrops, jacknifes, back and side presses, whereas Eddie was best known for his foot work, and spins. No sooner had he told us about that, than at night time, we'd get out what bits of gymanistic equipment we had at the school, and spend most of the time at the Youth Club, diving through hopps we'd hung up on th climbing ropes, and so on. I'd done Judo since I was six, so, as part of learning how to fall I was used to throwing myself about the floor in various forms of tucked forward roll, barrel roll and so on. It didn't take long to combine it with jacknifes, and a variety of other tricks.